Peter Angelos has Passed Away

[Uli2001]

25 minutes ago, sevastras said:

Although we all disagree with how he did things, he did it his way(Frank Senatra reference for you youngings).  He seemed to live a life fuller than most will ever even dream of and he should be honored for his accomplishments and impact he made not only to the city of Baltimore but the lives he was able to change. 
I won’t allow my selfish want for the Orioles to win championships blind me to the good he did for countless people. 

Good post.

[nevadaO]

Condolences to the Angelos family. Thank you for everything you did for the city of Baltimore.

[StottyByNature]

RIP Mr. Angelos.  Funny how someone you’ve never met feels like a part of your life.  I respect and appreciate his commitment to the city of Baltimore.  

[DrinkinWithFermi]

Whatever your personal feelings are about the man, a true Baltimore icon has left the building.

We can worry about how to view his legacy somewhere down the line.

Rest in peace, Peter. 

[Chavez Ravine]

RIP. He loved the city and the team.

[Billy F-Face3]

It would be disingenuous of me to deny ever having been frustrated with Orioles ownership. That's written with proof on the message board. But there's a better time and place to discuss that.

Right now is about the life of a man, completely... Not just one small microcosm or cherry picking just a couple years of being a franchise owner. Peter Angelos lived a life that was much more than just an owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

I send my condolences out to the Angelos family and all of Peter's friends & associates. It's a time of change,  mourning, and a reflection. No matter how much you may have thought you were mentally prepared to face that impending reality, it's never an easy thing to go through.

We are all complex individuals as human beings. Each of us. Peter was no exception to that. With that said, in this moment I'd like to remember some of the positive things he did for the people of Baltimore and Maryland. He cared alot about Baltimore. 

[Uli2001]

This is the time of letting bygones be bygones. Whatever wrongs he made, it was what he believed was best for the team. Even hiring Tryft, even firing Miller, Johnson, letting Mussina go, etc. He never tried to sabotage the team to move it, or anything like that. Fans are passionate and get mad when they see what they think are bad moves, but just look around, there are much worse things going on in the world to be mad about.

[Moshagge3]

Our relationship to sports owners is strange. Peter Angelos helped a lot of people through his career in law and through his charitable efforts, and also presided over a lot of bad baseball teams. A lot of people in Orioles fandom who are calling his legacy "mixed" would happily sing his unqualified praises if he made his money PRODUCING asbestos or tobacco and then used that money to win a few championships. If we all must face a divine judge after death, I would hope that what we do for people matters more than how many trophies we win. RIP.

[jabba72]

RIP to a legend. So does this mean Rubenstein can purchase the entire team? Is that correct?

[Roy Firestone]

You all have your opinions about him, and frankly, I cant disagree with many of your comments.He was often a stubborn man when it came to Oriole finances...he presided over some crummy teams , questionable hires, and even showed an occasional petty side.

But to be fair, Peter Angelos more often than not, stood up for those who had less of a voice, and were often powerless in the face of corporate policies. He won class action suits for people who suffered from asbestos poising and were in poor health.He also took on the tobacco lobby  and won a major settlement...those  are very, very good, very life changing things for many...and he should be applauded for that... But far more significantly, this man was a giant in terms of his social consciousness, outreach, and dozens of charities in the Baltimore area.

He was born on the Fourth of July and was a true American patriot despite the opinions of those who despised his attempt to have his team play Cuban teams while still under Castro's reign...he did it because he believed sports could bring people together.I had very little contact with Peter Angelos except for the one time, at Cal Ripken's HOF induction, we watched an Oriole game together (it was part of a make up game) at a Cooperstown bar...and he recognised me and told me a little about his Greek upbringing...and was very interesting and insightful.He was, in his younger days,an extremely brilliant lawyer and defender of those who had less..Sure, you wouldn't be wrong in your criticisms of him as an owner, though he DID, briefly usher in a Free  Agent era that brought the team close to the World Series..but I'll remember this man, if not fondly, with respect for his commitment to his community, and his good works. To me, in the final judgement of a man, that is far more important than winning baseball games..

Edited March 24 by Roy Firestone

[TopGunnar]

Rest in Peace. He gets a lot of unwarranted hate. 

[interloper]

RIP to a legendary figure. He had a hell of a run and he did it his way. End of an era.

[baltimoriole]

My orioles fandom started in earnest in 1993. Before then I was too young. Around that time Angelos spent money on Alomar, Palmerio, Surhoff, Wells, Key, Davis, etc and those mid-90s teams were awesome and got me hooked.  As a result I owe a lot of my love for the Orioles to Peter Angelos. I wish there was more good than bad since, but that’s what makes last year, 2012 & 2014 so special. Rest in peace, Peter. 

[dedwretched]

RIP. Good on you for owning the greatest team in organized sports as well as never giving in to corporate interests and keeping the OPaCY moniker. That I truly appreciate.

[gfrank]

Nice to see that O's fans here are taking a good attitude about the man about all this. There's a bunch of generally negative things you can say about the guy and his ownership style for the Orioles, but in the greater scheme of things, the positive things he did with his life definitely outweigh those pretty superficial negatives. It probably killed the guy that he had such a bad reputation with the fans for so many years, because by all accounts he actually did genuinely care about Baltimore sports and Maryland in general. He was even instrumental in generating interest and setting a path for getting a football team back into Baltimore, in fact, which was noteworthy at the time considering the NFL had a commissioner who was actively in opposition to there being a football team in Baltimore. It's not totally inconceivable to think that neither the Orioles nor the Ravens franchises would be in Baltimore if it wasn't for Angelos. It's a really horrible shame that he didn't have much of a knack for some of those finer intricacies of running a sports franchise, because in a lot of ways a guy like Peter Angelos is precisely the kind of guy absolutely every team would want as an owner.